Chapter 72: A Second Inaugural Address Calls for Reconciliation

March 4, 1865

On March 4 the President delivers a very brief 700 word Inaugural speech aimed at establishing the tone needed to achieve reunification. As usual his rhetoric soars:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s
wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his
orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.”